Tag: Timothy Johnson

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What Are We Doing and Where Have We Been?

The authors at Vintage City Publishing get lots of questions like, “Where do you get your ideas?” and “How do you come up with such interesting characters?” and “When are you guys going to pay your bar tab?”

But the most common question is, “What are you working on now?”

We thought we would put the question to our current stable of writers and see what they’ve accomplished in 2021, and maybe a sneak peek at what they have planned for 2022 and beyond. So without further ado…

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Under New Management, The Walking Dead Shambles On

I haven’t written about The Walking Dead for a while. I haven’t felt like it’s been worth writing about for a while. But now that it’s under new management and a major cast member has exited the show, I was interested to see where the series stands after nine seasons, an eternity on network television.

(Coincidentally, this ended up being 3,600 words, an eternity on the Internet, so if you don’t feel like reading that and want to leave right now, I really can’t blame you. I wrote it, though, so I’m posting it, dammit!)

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Interview With Author Timothy Johnson

1. What made you want to be a writer?

It was probably a mixture of narcissism, masochism, and the right teacher in the right class telling me I had potential in something when I felt I had potential in nothing but had to decide what I was going to do for the rest of my life. 

I took a creative writing class in college when I didn’t have a major, and when I started writing, I thought I was brilliant. At the time, I had been writing songs, so it seemed natural that I’d become a poet (because that’s a practical decision in this world). Then I was in a room with friends who literally laughed at my work, and I realized I wasn’t good.

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On Jonathan Franzen’s Rules for Novelists

In November, Lithub republished a list of ten rules for novelists by Jonathan Franzen that had originally appeared in the Guardian in 2010. It apparently raised a stink on the Internet. Reading the list now, I see why it was divisive. Some of his rules are obvious. Some are preposterous or pretentious. Overall, it’s just not a helpful list.

All of this is in my humble opinion, of course (this is my blog after all). Franzen has accomplished far more in his writing career than I probably ever will, but I see reflections of some broader issues in the literary community here that I feel the need to comment on.

To be clear, this isn’t really about Franzen’s list. This is about the impetus of some of his ideas. And admittedly, it probably reveals more about my own philosophies than Franzen’s, so take it for what it’s worth

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My Thoughts on Nick’s Villains Never Die

The first thing you should know about Villains Never Die is it’s going to be familiar. The second thing you should know about Villains Never Die is it’s going to be completely foreign.

That might seem like an oxymoron, but it isn’t. If the superhero story is a classic Mustang, Nick DeWolf brought it into his shop, tore out all of the old junk that engineers have improved in the last half century, replaced it with new technology, gave it a real good wash and wax, and then sent it out to the showroom floor.

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Confidence in Writing

Last week, a young writer asked if I had any insecurities about my writing. My initial response was, yes, of course I have insecurities. I wouldn’t be a writer if I wasn’t on some level insecure about my writing (and in general about everything for always and forever).

However, after some retrospection, I realized I’m in a much better place than I was when I started.

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The Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons

I acknowledge it’s unfair of me to review Dan Simmons’ entire Hyperion Cantos together because it’s a long, complex journey with highs and lows in terms of both narrative drama and writing quality. In many ways, it’s less a four-book series, and more a duology of duologies. Unfortunately, the first two books are far superior than the latter two, which mainly serve to button up the universe. If these books interest you at all, I might recommend reading only the first two; however, the Endymion books might compel you, and you might find yourself beginning to resent them and questioning whether it was worth beginning the series in the first place.

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Creative Writing Teachers Should Never Tell Students ‘No’

Nick Mamatas went on a Tweet storm yesterday about creative writing teachers barring students from writing genre fiction. It sparked conversation in the various Internets where writers dwell. I had thoughts.

I think Nick took it too far. Were we close, I’d ask him who hurt him, but alas, we’re not. I do think Nick was onto something, though.

(I should preface the rest of this with the disclaimer that I am not a fiction teacher, nor have I ever had the opportunity of teaching fiction writing, and nor is this a criticism of any creative writing teacher in particular. It’s a hard and thankless job, and it takes a special person to legitimately be excited to help others grow and succeed.)

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A Picture May Be Worth A Thousand Words, But An Imagination Is Way More Efficient Than That

If you had someone encourage you to write when you were young, he or she may have said, “paint me a picture.” As it turns out, this would be the worst advice anyone would ever give you. Even more dire is it may be the foundation of what many people believe to be good writing, and it’s evident as one of the most pervasive problems I see in the work of new writers.

Sometimes I think, maybe one day, I’ll get to teach a creative writing class. I think I would really enjoy it, and I think I could be reasonably good at it. In these times of grand fantasy, I consider the lessons I might bestow upon the next generation of writers.

Chief among them would be, as the writer, you’re not the painter. You’re the person at the paint store. Your readers aren’t using your imagination. Your readers are using their imaginations.

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